Hubble telescope detects galaxy with 'forbidden' light | Techno Doctor | magazine

NASA and the European Space Agency's Hubble Space Telescope captured an image showing a bright spiral galaxy known as MCG-01-24-014, which is located about 275 million light-years away and is emitting “forbidden” light.

In addition to being a well-defined spiral galaxy, MCG-01-24-014 has a highly active core known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and is classified as a galaxy. Seyfert type 2.

Seyfert galaxies, along with quasars, host one of the most common subclasses of AGN.

While the exact classification of AGNs is nuanced, Seyfert galaxies tend to be relatively close by and do not obscure their host's central AGNs, while quasars are very distant AGNs with incredible luminosity that outshines that of their host galaxies. NASA reports.

There are other subclasses of both Seyfert galaxies and quasars.

In the case of Seyfert galaxies, the dominant subclasses are type 1 and type 2.

Astronomers distinguish it by its spectrum, which is the pattern that results when light is divided into its component wavelengths. The spectral lines emitted by Seyfert type 2 galaxies are associated with specific “forbidden” emission lines.

To understand why the light emitted by a galaxy is suppressed, it is useful to understand why the spectra exist in the first place. Spectra look like this because some atoms and molecules absorb and emit light at very specific wavelengths.

The reason for this is quantum physics: Electrons (small particles orbiting the nuclei of atoms and molecules) can only exist at very specific energies, and thus electrons can only lose or gain very specific amounts of energy. These very specific amounts of energy correspond to the wavelengths of light that are absorbed or emitted.

According to some rules of quantum physics, forbidden emission lines should not exist. But quantum physics is complex, and some of the rules used to predict it were formulated under laboratory conditions here on Earth. According to these rules, such broadcasting is “prohibited”. It is unlikely that it will not be taken into account.

But out in space, in the middle of an incredibly active galactic core, these assumptions no longer hold, and “blocked” light has a chance to shine toward us. (Yo)